Articles
Healing from Trauma/Neglect/Abuse
Raising This Child Matters!
Occasionally, it’s good for your mental and emotional health to pause and consider what you are doing and why it matters. Kinship caregivers play a unique and vital role in a child’s healing and overall well-being. Do you stop to think about why and how to be sure you...
Starting on the Right Foot if Raising Your Grandchild is New to You
Many factors have come together to lead you to welcome your grandchild (or any other relative) to your home. This new situation can be fulfilling and satisfying – after all, you are helping this child find healing and safety to grow and thrive. However, the new...
Fun Traditions to Build Connection in Your Family
When raising kids who have experienced loss, chaos, or neglect, it's easy to get lost in the responsibility of helping them heal. Structure, routine, and predictability are essential to creating a foundation for that healing. But sometimes, we forget that good...
Impacts of Prenatal Exposure to Alcohol and Drugs
Talking to Your Grandchild About a Parent’s Drug or Substance Abuse
Your grandchild (or other loved one’s child) came to you with the weight of scary or challenging experiences. Your priority is to help this child feel safe, loved, and supported. This site, your extended family, and professionals in your community are surrounding you...
Helping Your Grandchild Avoid Substance Abuse
The time your grandchild spends in your care, in the nurturing, stable environment of your home, can be a powerful force that protects them from risky behaviors like underage drinking or drug use. You know that you cannot erase the experiences this child had before...
Caring For Prenatally Exposed Babies
Did you know that 10-11% of babies born in the US have been exposed to alcohol, drugs, or both before birth? The percentage is even higher for kids who are being raised by their grandparents or other relatives. And remember that drug exposure can include both legal...
Challenging Behaviors
Is My Grandchild Too Affectionate with Strangers?
Many young children feel free and safe to approach strangers with smiles and waves. They have not yet processed the "stranger danger" conversations that parents and caregivers will dole out over the coming years. They are curious, innocent, and trusting. But what do...
Connecting with Your Grandchild When You Must Correct Behavior
When parenting a grandchild, niece, or nephew who has experienced trauma, the balance of structure and nurture can be difficult to manage. The goal is to maintain the vital connections of trust, safety, and confidence the child feels in your home while helping them...
Managing the Day-to-Day with Younger Grandchildren
Parenting young kids today is quite different from when you were raising your children. Schools demand more connection between home and teachers. Phones, tablets, and laptops are the norm, even for preschool or early elementary-aged kids. And it probably feels like...
ADHD
No Results Found
The page you requested could not be found. Try refining your search, or use the navigation above to locate the post.
Disrupting Birth Order
No Results Found
The page you requested could not be found. Try refining your search, or use the navigation above to locate the post.
Helping A Child Heal from Sexual Abuse
No Results Found
The page you requested could not be found. Try refining your search, or use the navigation above to locate the post.
School Issues for Foster & Kinship Kids
No Results Found
The page you requested could not be found. Try refining your search, or use the navigation above to locate the post.
Technology/Internet and Our Kids
No Results Found
The page you requested could not be found. Try refining your search, or use the navigation above to locate the post.
Self-Care for Kinship and Foster Parents
Do You Have A Supportive Safety Net?
Are you a grandmother or aunt raising a loved one's child? Do you have several kids regularly in and out of your home for the love, nurture, and stability you offer? Partnering with others in your community to care for these young people is a privilege and honor....
Stop and Assess: How are YOU Doing?
Caring for a relative's child, whether for a long weekend or an extended season, can be rewarding and fulfilling. However, suppose you aren't used to supporting a child impacted by loss, neglect, or prenatal substance exposure. In that case, it can also be bewildering...
Practical Tips to Starting Regular Self-Care
When you are raising a child from your extended family or tribal community, you are giving of yourself in new and challenging ways. Your grandchild (or cousin or nephew) needs you to help them overcome their struggles. It's easy to feel overwhelmed by their needs and...
Relationship with Child’s Parent
No Results Found
The page you requested could not be found. Try refining your search, or use the navigation above to locate the post.
Working Together For the Good of the Child In Your Care
The Benefits of Raising a Grandchild or Other Young Loved One
When you first took in your grandkids (or other loved one), you may have done it because it was “the right thing to do.” The kids didn’t do anything to deserve this, and family cares for family. But it still feels hard. It might help to focus on the significant...
Practical Ways to Set Your Grandchild Up for Success
It's challenging to raise your grandchild (or other loved one) in today's world. Your grandchild’s early life experiences can make your role in their life feel overwhelming. The impacts of their trauma or prenatal exposure to drugs or alcohol can create many obstacles...
Welcoming a Relative Child When You Have Children Already in the Home
Adding a child to your family changes how you function in your home. Frequently, the kids already living in your home feel these changes most profoundly. This article will refer to them as "resident children." Tips to Prepare Resident Children Whether you are offering...
Phone
This website was supported with funding from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families’ Children’s Bureau through the Improving Child Welfare Through Investing in Family grant #HHS-2021-ACF-ACYF-CW-1921. The purpose of this grant is to provide an array of kinship preparation services and ongoing kinship supports, and provide shared parenting to build trusting relationships between all out-of-home caregivers and parents of children/youth in foster care to ensure parents and families remain actively involved in normal child-rearing activities.
This website is supported by Grant Number 90CW1149 (HHS-2021-ACF-ACYF-CW-1921) from the Children’s Bureau within the Administration for Children and Families, a division of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Neither the Administration for Children and Families nor any of its components operate, control, are responsible for, or necessarily endorse this website (including, without limitation, its content, technical infrastructure, and policies, and any services or tools provided). The opinions, findings, conclusions, and recommendations expressed are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Administration for Children and Families and the Children’s Bureau.